Jurist India government declines foreign funding registration renewal to Mother Teresa’s charity

[Dadparvar]

India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Monday confirmed that it had refused to renew the foreign funding registration for Missionaries of Charity’s (MoC), a Catholic religious congregation set up by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, on grounds of adverse inputs in their application record. Registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) is necessary for any association to receive foreign funding or donations.

The issue created significant controversy after the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Monday afternoon that the central government had illegitimately frozen all of MoC’s bank accounts. leaving “their 22,000 patients & employees…without food & medicines.” In response, the Indian government ministry issued a statement clarifying that it had only refused renewal of the missionary organisation’s registration and denied claims that it had frozen the organisation’s bank accounts. The MHA also stated it has not received any request for reviewing its decision and the MoC has itself requested for its bank, the State of Bank of India, to freeze its accounts.

The MoC has issued a clarification confirming the MHA’s position:

We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity has neither been suspended nor cancelled. Further, there is no freeze ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs on any of our bank accounts. We have been informed that our FCRA renewal application has not been approved. Therefore, as a measure to ensure there is no lapse, we have asked our centres not to operate any of our FC accounts until the matter is resolved.

According to the missionary group’s annual return, its foreign receipts for the year 2020-21 stood at ₹751,903,116.67 ($10,042,177.42). Any organisation receiving funding from abroad must comply with the audit requirements under the FCRA and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules. It is now open to the MoC to request a review of the MHA’s decision or apply for a fresh registration certificate.

The government’s action comes a few weeks after the statutory body for children rights, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, filed a police complaint against one of MoC’s child homes for religious conversion of minors.

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